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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23146414">put your emptiness to melody</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomicwonderwoman/pseuds/batyatta'>batyatta (atomicwonderwoman)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hope on this side of the grave [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Overwatch (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Banshee Moira O'Deorain, F/F, Magic, death but not any of the main characters more like mentions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:22:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23146414</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomicwonderwoman/pseuds/batyatta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time they meet she is but a child, holding a vigil over her dying grandmother. She doesn't understand why Moira is there, at first, but when she sings, the recognition shows up on her face. She is the only member of her family, other than the dying one, to know that she's there.</p><p>Or not. Moira has never paid too much attention to humans. But this girl looks at her like she sees her and it's remarkable enough.</p><p>She sings her song, the blue eyes never leaving her face and, when the old woman releases her last breath, she disappears.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Moira O'Deorain/Angela "Mercy" Ziegler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hope on this side of the grave [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2222985</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>put your emptiness to melody</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Really fun times we're living in, huh. Stay home if you can and stay safe!</p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The first time they meet she is but a child, holding a vigil over her dying grandmother. She doesn't understand why Moira is there, at first, but when she sings, the recognition shows up on her face. She is the only member of her family, other than the dying one, to know that she's there.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or not. Moira has never paid too much attention to humans. But this girl looks at her like she sees her and it's remarkable enough.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She sings her song, the blue eyes never leaving her face and, when the old woman releases her last breath, she disappears.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They meet again a few years later, when the girl is on the verge of womanhood. It's entertaining, at least. Her eyes widen and she shares a terrified look with her parents. Her lips move but Moira doesn't bother trying to understand her. She's mortal, they all are and they end up the same way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She goes away and comes back two days later to find her crying over the trampled bodies of her parents. She sings her song and the girl watches her, still so young.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Innocent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And yet her eyes are on fire, filled with that youthful rightfulness. The stubborn refusal to accept what is inevitable. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As if the mortal concepts of what's right or wrong have any hold in death.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She finishes her song and leaves. She can feel the girl's gaze on her back before she disappears.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's not a conscious decision to show up in that same village but when she does she's almost glad. It's the girl again, a young woman now, working tirelessly on a man for whom she's come to sing. She's not sure what she's trying to do there - if she's pulled to this plane, his fate is already sealed but the girl is trying with all her might to keep him alive.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Moira starts her song and she looks up, bewildered. The expression quickly turns to recognition and then anger and Moira starts to enjoy herself. It's been hundreds of years and only a scarce few could see her. Even those for whom she sang not always bothered to look for her, too terrified of what they would find. To be faced with anger. That was new. Refreshing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But the result is still the same - her song ends, the man dies. She's gone and the young woman with pale hair and blue eyes drops her arms in defeat.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They meet again and again. It's curious but Moira doesn't question it, just enjoys her visits to the mortal plane. Sings her songs and watches the woman try, again and again, to change what's already been decided. She's become a healer of sorts. Moira can only glimpse into her life but it's clear enough when their paths keep crossing. When she keeps trying to salvage what is unsalvageable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's all the same until it's not and she doesn't get to finish her song.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's hard to say who is more surprised - Moira when her voice catches in her throat? Or the woman, stupefied by silence until she understands and smiles wide. Looks up at Moira with triumph.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She disappears but the woman is already busy with her patient.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What should be an outlier becomes a pattern. Every now and then her song is interrupted. It's the most excitement she's had in hundreds of years and she starts to wonder if that woman is entirely human.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She'd seen good healers but no one that good. No one who could stop her song and change somebody's fate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It becomes a competition of sorts, her healing or Moira's song. She's no longer angry when she sees her, just determined. Animated, Moira believes. There's a challenge thrown and she takes the gauntlet again and again. Moira loves this. Loves their little game.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At least what's a game for her, she can't say what it is for that woman.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That woman who's growing more and more beautiful. Surely there must be some other mortal seeking her affections. Trying to make her his and Moira had sung for enough young women like that. Ones who died in their prime.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But it's none of her business, those are the affairs of mortals that she doesn't pay any heed to.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time she sings until the end and disappears. The woman nods and puts her instruments away.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had no chance of saving that one anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It feels bizarre, being acknowledged. In her hundreds of years, she scarcely saw the same mortal more than once. It's as if the universe is trying to push her towards that woman. It doesn't feel right but at the same time, there's a weird warmth within her when the woman nods in greeting. When she listens to her song and looks for her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She feels seen in a way she never had a chance to and she can't help wondering why is it like this. Why is she the one who shows up in that village again and again, why she wasn't just pulled to the deaths in the woman's family.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Why she keeps being sent to her, to each of her successes and failures, to every death she steals from her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If everything is decided, she should not see the woman defy the order. She should not see her healing powers bloom, she should not -</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It can't be too much time in the mortal realm between her visits. The woman is still as beautiful as ever, still fighting. But her face is different. She looks exhausted, her bones are more prominent. The dark circles never disappear from under her eyes and her clothes are hanging on her frame. Even her hair doesn’t shine the way it used to. Moira is starting to realize that the uneasiness she feels is worry and it stems from the attachment she developed. An attachment to a mortal.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>How laughable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The place changes too - it's no longer that same, clean space, full of disease and sorrow. It's quieter now. Peaceful enough to seem like her own house. And they don't see each other as often too. It's like she has fewer patients and she's withdrawn herself from the public. Moira can only wonder why but she knows that she'll find out sooner than later.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time she succeeds. Moira's song stops and the woman smiles at her. It lights up her face in a way it hurts to see.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Moira disappears. The woman waves goodbye.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time they're alone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The woman is not surprised to see her. She doesn't back away, quite the opposite - she beckons her and Moira comes closer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Did you come to sing for me?" the woman asks. Moira nods and starts her song. The woman closes her eyes and listens. Moira sings and takes in her haggard appearance. Dirty dress, torn in places, bruises on her arms. The cramped cell they put her in, the chains on her ankles. She sings and feels the rage building up inside her. But there's nothing she can do, no comfort she can offer so she does the only thing she can. She sings.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When she's done the woman opens her eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They say it's going to be tomorrow," she says quietly. "Will you sing for me then?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Moira nods. The woman closes her eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It never hurts to disappear. Until it does.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>::::</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She has little control over her appearances in the mortal realm but if she's right it should be of no importance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And so, she gets to see the woman chained to a stake. She's holding her head down while they gather the wood around her. There's some mortal in ceremonial robes reading what must be her sentence. Moira watches them, seething. She's not part of that realm, not in any significant way. Not in a way she could do anything.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's her first time experiencing helplessness in such a visceral way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn't get to dwell on those feelings because it's time for her to sing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The moment she starts the woman looks at her and smiles. Even from afar she can see the tears in her eyes. Can hear her scream, loud and clear when they set her on fire.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And yet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yet she hopes for an outcome that should not be possible but she can believe in anything when it comes to that woman. And as she sings, she sees the last remnants of humanity burned out of her, can see her leave the mortal coil and emerge from the fire.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No longer one of the mortals. Something more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her glee seeps into the song when the woman strikes down those who wronged her. And for the first time, her song ends on a happy note.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The woman looks wild and gorgeous, a force of nature naked in front of her, her hair singed at the ends. Moira never really paid too much attention to her body - it’s not like there was a reason, she was a mortal but now. Now it turns out that there are some sensations that were foreign to her. Sensations that mortals had probably dealt with when faced with the woman. She thinks they call it desire or something nonsense like that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were mortals, it hardly mattered. Until she has to name the reason why she’s itching to touch, to feel her body under her fingers. The reason why she feels warm all over, her face especially, is she flushing? She isn’t a mortal, she doesn’t fall ill. Is it the woman?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The woman, who is watching her curiously, with a smile on her face. The woman who reaches out, a mortal custom Moira can recognise. Something she can deal with.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"My name is Angela," she says. Her voice is different now too, she can hear it clearly and Moira decides that she likes it. Maybe would even like to hear her sing.  "Can I finally get to know yours?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Moira smiles, showing her sharp teeth and holds the extended hand with her shriveled, clawed one, enjoying the strong grip. Marveling at the difference between Angela’s soft, pale skin and hers, rough and gray. Pleasantly surprised that the woman doesn’t flinch. That she’s not wary of her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"They used to call me Moira."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The woman's smile widens. "Do you know what I am?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Moira frowns. She can’t be sure, not exactly. She’s seen many creatures but Angela… Angela is something alike but different. “Seems like you could be a witch. But I cannot be certain.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s fine. We’ll find out eventually,” and doesn’t that sound far more than acceptable. “Am I still mortal?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not anymore,” Moira says with certainty, showing her teeth again. She doesn’t think she ever smiled so much. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Oh. Does that mean that I can follow you this time?"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Moira is smiling so wide her face hurts. She nods, realizes that she never let go of Angela's hand and they disappear together.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please leave kudos or a comment, those little things really do make a trendemous difference &lt;3</p><p>I'm on twitter as <a href="http://twitter.com/batyatta">batyatta</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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